Fed

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2000
Fed:: Australian relatives welcome bridge verdict in Israel

CANBERRA, April 18 AAP - Relatives of the Australian victims caught up in a bridge
collapse outside the 1997 Maccabiah games said they are pleased five Israelis have been
found guilty of manslaughter.

Four Australian athletes were killed and several others injured when a rickety footbridge
collapsed at the beginning of the games, known as the Jewish Olympics.

Colin Elterman, the father of Sasha Elterman, 18, who ingested poisonous river water
after the collapse, said he welcomed the verdict.

"From long-distance watching the trial, we were expecting and hoping for a guilty verdict,"

he told ABC radio.

"We spent the last two-and-a-half, three years, trying to get justice and morality,
and some showing of decency from the organisation, the Maccabee World Union, that invited
us to Israel and requisitioned the bridge.

"I think the courts have shown them now that not only are they morally liable, but
they are legally and criminally liable as well."

Mr Elterman said that after more than 30 operations and a year in hospital, his daughter
was still ill from a fungus ingested in the polluted Yarkon river.

He said he had not been looking for vengeance from the courts, because no sentence
could make up for the deaths and suffering that occurred.

"But this will send a very strong message to people that sit on boards of organisations
such as this in Israel that they cannot play fast and loose with public safety," Mr Elterman
said.

"If they do this, then they will pay the price."

In an Olympics-style opening ceremony on July 14, 1997, delegations of athletes were
supposed to enter the main stadium by crossing the footbridge over the Yarkon River.

With the Austrian and Australian athletes waiting on the bridge, it suddenly buckled,
dumping them into the water.

AAP rft/bdmo

KEYWORD: ISRAEL BRIDGE AUST

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